More Grand Prix Withdrawals and an Update on a Former World Champion

Daisuke Murakami and Polina Edmunds out of their second events, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva trying to make her second with a program change.

The Grand Prix of Figure Skating stands at the halfway mark. The fourth event, the Trophée de France, starts in Paris on Friday. But there are still a couple of significant withdrawals this week from the final Asian leg of the series. Meanwhile, we’re far enough into the season that skaters who bad made choices in programs sometimes abandon them. This year a former World Champion on the rocks has done so.

Daisuke Murakami Out of Cup of China

Japan’s Daisuke Murakami is a former NHK Trophy winner. But he hasn’t matched the top skaters in the crowded Japanese men’s field. This year he was assigned to Skate America and Cup of China. Both had fields where he was unlikely to win, but was in contention for a medal. But now he’s essentially lost his season to a foot injury. He first hurt it before the competition at Skate America, and was forced to withdraw. Right after, a week and a half ago, he nonetheless showed up for Japan’s Eastern Sectional Championships. He had to, because he didn’t have a bye to Japanese Nationals, and needed to qualify.

It was the wrong decision. Starting with a quadruple salchow jump, he aggravated the foot, had to pause the program, and even after he resumed didn’t do most of the elements. He then withdrew before the free, losing his chance at Nationals and with it any chance at the Four Continents or World Championships. Now there will not even be Cup of China; his name’s off the roster. Hopefully he’ll bounce back next season. Two of Japan’s biggest men’s stars, Daisuke Takahashi and Nobunari Oda, both famously did after having to sit an entire season out. But they were at very top of the field. Murakami isn’t. Can he hope to even catch up with those ranked higher than him, let alone overtake them?

It is close enough to the event there probably won’t be a replacement. It would simply be too difficult to get a visa for most potential replacement skaters in time. Right now, eleven men remain on the roster: two favorites for gold and silver, and a number of men who could win bronze. Still, the field is substantially weaker without him.

Polina Edmunds Out of NHK Trophy

Polina Edmunds, the 2015 Four Continents Champion, hasn’t competed since U.S. Nationals last January. She withdrew from Worlds due to a bone bruise on her right foot that apparently is still plaguing her. She withdrew from last week’s Rostelecom Cup first, but initially stayed on the roster for the series’ final event, perhaps hoping to make it to at least that. But she announced her withdrawal earlier this week.

She is at least back on the ice. She has over two months left with which to prepare for Nationals. On would thing that enough time. Yet an injury that’s apparently reoccurred once already keeping her down this long is downright alarming. At Nationals she should more or less be favorite to join top two Ashley Wagner and Gracie Gold on the World team, but there’s already more than one candidate who could easily unseat her. If this takes much more of a toll, it’ll be hard for her to hold on.

With two weeks before the event, there should be time to find a replacement, though so far they have named none. The just thing to do would be to invite Mariah Bell. A skater who wins silver as a last minute replacement at Skate America is worthy of it. Also, a second event would give her a shot at making the Grand Prix Finale. But when she might be a threat to their home skaters there, the Japanese federation might not be willing to invite her. Like Murakami, Edmunds would’ve contended for bronze, but there are plenty of contenders for it left without her.

Elizaveta Tuktamysheva Dealing with Illness, Program Change

After coming in a disappointing fourth at Skate Canada, the 2015 World Champion trying for a second comeback season got a bit of notice last week too, although that was just for being in the audience for the Rostelecom Cup in Moscow. The camera showed her several times, including during slow-mos, and her response to countryman Mikhail Kolyada’s disastrous free has already entered into use by skating fans as a reaction GIF:

This week, coach Alexei Mishin gave an interview in which we learned what the St. Petersburg-based skater was doing in Moscow in the first place. She’d gone there to work with choreographer Stephane Lambiel(who had another skater in the competition), to retool her long from last season. Her Cleopatra-themed long for this one had underwhelmed. The decision to discard it and go back to her previous long was apparently Mishin’s. Joking about boxing Cleopatra up in the pyramid with Cheops(so he wouldn’t get bored), the coach expressed the opinion the character didn’t suit her. Her long last year was a medley to mostly Edvard Grieg music, and Mishin described it as underused, since she did not qualify for either Europeans or Worlds last year.

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However, the trip did have one unfortunate consequence: poor Tuktamysheva apparently caught the flu in Moscow. However, Mishin insists she should recover in time for Cup of China next week.